After the much successful launch of chrome browser, Google is now coming up with Chrome operating System. In a sudden, if not unexpected, announcement this morning, Google said it would release an open-source operating system based on its Chrome browser. The OS will be free, geared (at first) toward netbooks, and focused on “speed, simplicity, and security. Google Chrome OS would be available online “later this year” as a free, open-source download, while specially tailored netbooks running the operating system are targeted for the second half of 2010. The release will not be a remixed version of the Android phone platform, but a “minimalist user interface,” with more screen space and computer power given over to web applications.
More specifically, Chrome OS is planned to run on x86 and ARM-based processors, and its architecture is described as “Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” Developers looking to specifically target the Chrome OS need not apply, as Google says “the web is the platform”—the system will, in other words, run web applications online and offline, and those applications should also work on any standards-based browser on any system
Many who closely watch the search company have predicted a similar move for some time now. To say the Chrome OS will face stiff competition is quite an understatemet, with Intel developing its own lightweight, Linux-based netbook platform, Windows XP emerging as a force in netbook OS share, and Microsoft itself likely to fight tooth and nail to keep yet another upstart from encroaching on the one area of PC sales that is still seeing significant growth.
It’s easy to assume Chrome OS is a strong push to get users familiar with using Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other web suites, both online and off. It’s harder to figure out the specifics of how Google’s platform will overcome the deeply entrenched Windows familiarity that has kept other Linux-based netbook upstarts mostly in check, and how it will accommodate the vast array of x86 hardware compatibility quirks that plagues Linux distributions to this day. More details and discussions to come, certainly.
One thing is for sure,if Google can do another remarkable job on this OS,it would surely put a dent on the sales of Windows XP based netbooks.Well the monoply Windows seems to have over the OS market might also come to an end just as the coming of various open-source web browser like Google Chrome(Still needs a bit of tweaking here and there),Mozilla Firefox(The current best with Vr. 3.5 out) and Opera Browser(Vr. 9.64) have dented the market of Windows Internet Explorer.
Lets see if the Linux based kernel system has enough power to sway the tide in it’s favour.